There is a lot of excitement that surrounds seeing the best of the best come together for one night in all star competition. In many aspects in other sports, we do not get to see the same game or competition when the all star event gets underway. That is not the case when the drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series head to Charlotte for the Sprint All Star Race.

I can understand why other all star events cannot deliver the same intensity as NASCAR does for its all star event. Drivers cannot drive their cars slower or let up on the competition in the event. The drivers also have another incentive for pushing the car to the limits, one of the largest paydays of the season is on the line in the all star event. A cool $1,000,000+ is on the line for winning the event.

At the end of the night, Carl Edwards took the checkered flag and the large bank roll to the house. Edwards had a fast car all night, and won the race off of pit road for the four tire stop prior to the start of the last segment of the event. Edwards also won the second and third segment of the all star event.

The talk all day leading up to the race was that this was a good time to give payback for past transgressions on the track. That never really materialized throughout the race. The biggest wreck of the all star event was Kasey Kahne getting into the wall around lap 58. Even though Kahne got into the wall, it appeared there was no contact with another car that caused the incident.

Greg Biffle got off to a great start in the event by taking the lead early in the first segment over Kyle Busch. Biffle went on to win the first segment. This was the third straight year that the first segment finished without a caution being required.

Edwards further added to his dominant night by winning the second segment. Jimmie Johnson was lurking during the second segment, and actually led some laps during that segment. It was not to be for Johnson on the night, He finished the race in the 11th position.

The Showdown Race, non all star drivers race prior to the all star event, featured David Ragan winning to advance to the all star event, with Brad Keselowski also getting a ticket to the main event for taking the second spot. In what was the worst kept secret in racing, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the fan vote to also be included in the feature race of the night. Junior was a non factor in the all star event finishing 14th.

In one of the what the Fruit Loop moments at the end of any race, Edwards drove into the infield to do his victory celebration and hit a storm drain and partially launched the car into the air. The drain did heavy damage to the front end of the car, which required a wrecker to come to the infield to take the car to victory lane. Hopefully that is not the car that Edwards and his team hoped to bring to the Coke 600 next Sunday.